Despite growing recognition for her straight roles, the fiery performer can’t forget Nan, Lauren and the rest of the gang

When Catherine Tate was asked to appear in a revival of Alan Ayckbourn’s Season’s
Greetings at the National Theatre this Christmas, she decided to say yes
before she’d even read it. Ayckbourn, the National, the director Marianne
Elliot . . . what was not to like? Then her agent advised her to “be
old-fashioned” and read it first. She did so. She loved it. But she thought
she’d been sent an incomplete script.

After all, this 1980 comedy leaves its characters in just the kind of
emotional limbo that most writers prefer to resolve. Take Tate’s character,
Belinda, a neglected housewife who takes